Framing Your Game with Social Technologies

posted by David Wolf on Sep 14, 2008 | Comments (1) | Permalink | Trackback URL

Using social networks to build brand is now at the forefront of brand and business building.

Coming soon, we’ll be adding a whole bunch of new features to Smallbiz Central over at www.SBTV.com. Along them, a media uploader and dynamic Profile Page, so you can “broadcast yourself” and your business. Moving forward, as the co-architect of Smallbiz Central, I’m thinking a whole lot about how to help small business people using social media. There are so many social networks our there that the challenge is provoking alot of reflection and strategic probing. 

In Groundswell,  the book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, “broadcasting” is likened to “shouting”. This  of course refers to the traditional, old school advertising method: “telling the customer what to think about you and your brand”. The new school is one of engagement and participation, and above all…authentically solving your customers needs.

So, to really get started and into this social technology thing for your business, you’ll need to know define and/or redefine your business objectives. Of, course—you should do this habitually anyway! Then, you’ll need to determine how you want to set up your social media platform to achieve your objectives. Selecting blogs, discussions and even creating podcasts or video clips are a few of the mediums available. But, remember…you need to determine what combination of approaches, and tech—strategies will engage your customers. And aligned wth the technique you choose, you must decide how you will interact as well. What will be your voice? And how are your designing and “framing” the game.

Groundswell (a fascinating read) really takes this thought process apart so one can apply the ideas. With social media, you can decide how your game will be played. Will you be using a blog ad discussion to LISTEN to your market, to TALK TO your market, or to help them solve their problem? Three basic examples of how you might choose to frame your own game. 

One powerful feature that I plan for future releases will be the ability to start your own group on Smallbiz Central. This will enable you…the small business owner to full embrace and maximize the potential of our SBTV social network. It will put you at the center of a conversation you can design and frame to meet your objectives. It will allow you to plan and impliment your own web-tech strategy to build your customer relationships in a way that matches your brand persona, and meets your stated objectives. 

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